ZUT alors! Royal Navy pilots are having to take emergency French lessons because Britain is forced to rely on its neighbour for ships.

While the rest of Britain debates a pull-out from Europe, the cash-strapped Royal Navy has shrunk its surface fleet to such an extent that it has had to mount frontline operations against Somali pirates from French warships.

In the first major joint operation of its kind a British Lynx helicopter is providing aerial reconnaissance and fire support for a French frigate, as part of the EU’s Operation Atalanta mission to combat piracy which costs the world’s economy more than £4billion a year.

Inquiries as to whether English would be spoken on board the French ship Surcouf were met with a resounding “Non!”

In the first major joint operation of its kind a British Lynx helicopter is providing aerial reconnaissance and fire support for a French frigate

So, helicopter crews from 815 Naval Air Squadron went back to school. All external communications from the vessel are in English but internal communications, including vital daily briefings, are held strictly “en français”.

The 10 officers and crew of the Lynx had to head for the elite Ministry of Defence School of Languages in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, where instructors are more used to teaching Pashto and Arabic to troops sent to Afghanistan and the Middle East.

The officers turned their attentions to an intensive four-month French course. A Defence and Security Co-operation Treaty, dubbed the “entente frugale”, was signed by France and Britain in November 2010.

A senior source at the Royal Navy Fleet Headquarters near Portsmouth last night warned that more sailors and air crew would have to learn French. The source said: “The situation is ridiculous and it will get worse because we just don’t have the ­vessels.

“Those who allowed these cuts will be remembered in history for the damage they have done.”

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